The Nonprofit FAQ

Research on Nonprofits

The Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action and the Program on Nonprofit Organizations at Yale University publish the "Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly" (NVSQ). The table of contents for recent issues, submission guidelines, etc., can be found through the URL http://www.evans.washington.edu/nvsq/ . There is also a mailing list discussion group, ARNOVA-L, which distributes notes and commentary by many members of ARNOVA and their counterparts from universities, research centers, and independent points of observation around the world. To find out about ARNOVA-L, use http://www.arnova.org/list_srv.html. Independent Sector offers the Nonprofit Pathfinder as a point-of-entry for nonprofit research results and related information: http://www.independentsector.org/pathfinder/ Topics include "Innovations - Profiles of experiments in community building," "Measuring Impact - Methodologies for defining results," "Research Resources - Sources of information on the nonprofit sector," and "Bibliographies - Literature and libraries." There is also a searching tool for the site. The Aspen Institute has a fund for supporting research on nonprofits. There is information about the fund and the research it has supported at http://www.aspeninstitute.org/nppf/index.html. The Aspen Institute Suite 1070, 1333 New Hampshire Avenue, N.W. Washington, DC 20036 (202) 736-5800, fax (202) 467-0790. The Foundation Center publishes an annual bibliography called "The Literature of the Nonprofit Sector." It is searchable at The Foundation Center's website: http://fdncenter.org/onlib/lnps/ . The Foundation Center, 79 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10003-3076. (212) 620-4230, (800) 424-9836, Fax: (212) 807-3677. Professor Joel L. Fleishman of Duke University provides an organized outline of research resources as background for his course called "The Idea of the Voluntary Society: Charitable Giving, Volunteering, Not-for-profits and Public Policy." See http://www.pubpol.duke.edu/courses/pps280s/index.html Reposted with additions and corrections 5/25/98, 2/6/02, 10/20/02 --PB